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Perpetual Motion Personified
Simone Ferrara - Perpetual Motion Personified
by Jeremy Ruane
Picture the scene - you’re at the peak of your footballing powers, with an active lifestyle to match your sporting love. One ill-timed challenge later, you’re left in a crumpled heap, wondering if you’ll ever play again, if you’ll ever again get the chance to fully enjoy the things you’ve, until now, taken for granted …
Anybody who has endured the experience knows it takes character and courage aplenty to come back from one career-threatening injury. So to come back from two such setbacks and still be a first-choice player for your country on the international stage, as well as play professionally …
Simone Ferrara doesn’t claim to be some sort of super-woman, but the New Zealand women’s soccer star is definitely something out of the ordinary, especially given her recovery from the knee and shoulder injuries which threatened to cut short her career.
"Recovering from the ACL injury was the hardest thing I’ve ever done - it’s the sort of injury you see happen, and hope it never happens to you".
It happened to Simone in last 2000, during a selection match for players hoping to be part of the inaugural WUSA (Women’s United Soccer Association) professional women’s soccer league in the USA.
"At the time it happened, I was at the peak of my career. I made my first appearances for New Zealand earlier that year in the Pacific Cup, had helped Three Kings United win what was the last Auckland Women’s Knockout Shield, and helped Auckland win the National Tournament, having started the year as a member of the Auckland rep team which toured South America.
"When the injury happened, though …". A grimace briefly haunts her face as she recalls the moment. "I thought of quitting, I won’t deny that. It was really tough, as injuries always are - from the knocks you pick up in every game through to major ones like this one. A lot of friends rallied around and supported me, encouraging me when I was down and helping me on the road to recovery".
Getting back to full fitness following that injury took Simone the best part of eighteen months. "Recovering from the ACL is definitely my greatest achievement", she reflects, "but not far behind it was playing professionally in China in 2002, when, together with Maia Jackman, I was a guest player in the Chinese Women’s Super League, in my case for Shanghai TV.
"That is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. With the different culture and way of life, it was a real challenge simply to fit in. I found I was second-guessing myself - it really made me think. But I’m really glad I went from both a footballing and personal viewpoint - it was a huge experience".
It was while playing for New Zealand in the pre- Women’s World Cup tour of the USA in 2003 that Simone picked up the other injury which left her thinking "Not again!!"
This time, it was a shoulder dislocation. Being the trooper she is, Simone played through the pain barrier to help her country’s quest to qualify for USA 2003, but disappointment came in the form of the old enemy, Australia, who thwarted New Zealand’s hopes once more in the game which mattered most.
After a season playing for her local club, Ajax of Southern California, the surgery required to correct her shoulder problem put her career on ice once more, and February’s Australia Cup tournament was the first time Simone had played since her operation.
It goes without saying you’d hardly have known it of the lively midfielder. She was an industrious as ever - in football-speak, "she’s got a great motor!!" The description which best fits Simone is perpetual motion personified, and it applies as much off the field as on it.
For her life away from soccer is just as active, if not more so. Rumour has it this go-getting twenty-seven-year-old spends most of her time careering around the streets of California in her BMW Roadster, with her hands-free cellphone unit in near-constant use as she makes arrangements for all sorts of things to do with self and work.
"Where’s Maia? I’ll kill her!! That is just so not true!!", groans the twelve-times-capped New Zealand international, as we chat in the relaxed surroundings of Brisbane’s Hotel Grand Chancellor during the Australia Cup campaign.
"In all honesty, there is so much going on in my life right now. I’ve spent most of this year preparing for married life - April 10 was the big day - so I’ve been very focused on that. As a result, the Australia Cup tour has been really difficult for me to focus on, compared to previous tours.
"As well, my parents, Linda and Mario, are looking to retire from the family’s bakery business, and I’m basically running it right now. My ultimate goal is to take over the business, and with my man Pete going back to school to further his studies, I’m literally going to be the bread-winner!!"
Who would have thought that this Howick-born soccer star would end up playing for her country, while operating a bakery right next door to where the 2003 Women’s World Cup Final took place, the Home Depot Centre in suburban Los Angeles?
"We moved to California when I was four. I have four brothers, all athletes,
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and all runners. That wasn’t for me, though. One of my brothers, Marcus, played soccer, as did my parents - my mum’s a Kiwi native too. I wanted to play as well, and my family was very supportive - they still are.
"Soccer is really big for kids in the USA. I started playing at the age of five in the American Youth Soccer Organisation (AYSO). It’s social soccer, and great for learning the game.
"Anyone who wants to take up soccer on a more serious basis goes to play for clubs at around twelve or thirteen, although kids are doing so younger than that nowadays. I joined the South Bay Gunners, my home-town club in Torrance, and played for them for six years".
It was at South Bay that Simone was spotted by the man she credits as being the most influential person in her soccer career, Marine Cano. "There is a US Soccer programme called the Olympic Development programme, and he picked me out and put me on that before I went to college.
"Wherever I’ve been, Marine’s been really positive - he’s the person I go to see whenever I’m in need of encouragement, or fine-tuning an aspect of my game".
After her club career, Simone studied at and played for the University of California, Irvine, for four years - she still holds the record for assists for the team known as the Anteaters!!
Following her graduation, the U2 fan came back to Howick and lived with her grandparents, taking a break from soccer at the same time. Simone being Simone, however, she couldn’t sit around doing nothing for very long.
"I hate being inside!! Kayaking, hiking … anything outdoors and I’m happy! On this occasion, I was playing in a seven-a-side league during the summer, and ended up in Helen Exler’s team.
"She told Three Kings’ coach Lee Green about me, so he came out to watch, and it wasn’t too long before I was heading to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay as part of the Auckland women’s squad.
"We beat the Paraguayan national women’s team twice on that tour, and both of Uruguay’s leading club sides, while we lost to Argentina 1-0 then drew 1-1 with them. The bulk of that team contested last year’s Women’s World Cup Finals".
From South America, it was on to action for club, province and country, with Simone being named Player of the Tournament at the 2000 National Women’s Tournament in Rotorua.
It was a nice high on which to finish her Kiwi sojourn, but the lure of playing in the WUSA was strong - little did this sushi-loving soccer star know what fate would have in store for her just six weeks later …
Simone has certainly seen the rough and the smooth of life through playing the game the world plays, but now she’s happily married, what does the future have in store for someone whose love for her sport is such that she considers soccer shorts to be her favourite item of clothing?
"I want to keep playing, that’s for sure. Until she secured a contract with German club FFC Frankfurt, New Zealand captain Rebecca Smith and I played for Ajax in the WPSL (Women’s Premier Soccer League), which is the next tier down from the WUSA.
"Of course, I’d like to think I’ll still be playing at this (international) level in five years time, too. This Australia Cup squad is the best group I’ve played with - they’ve got a great future ahead of them. They’re a young, promising team, and I can see them going very far very fast in the next couple of years as they develop.
"Bex and I have been training back home but not knowing what for - that’s been the case pretty much for the last four years, to be honest. But now this tournament has come along, and the staff have put everything into perspective for us and given us something to aim for - that’s a big help to us all, and a big incentive to realise our objectives, too".
She’d love the chance to take on her favourite player in an international between New Zealand and the USA, too. But for those who are thinking Mia Hamm, think again. "After watching her play, I can safely say that US midfielder Tiffany Roberts is my favourite player - she’s had a huge influence on my game.
"Another player I admire on the US team is one of my best friends, and she was also one of my bridesmaids. Shannon Boxx played in the FIFA Women’s All Stars team against Germany in France in May, so it would be a good experience to play against her, too".
The two-match series New Zealand is about to play against the USA allows Simone the opportunity to realise that ambition, and in an ideal world, she will enjoy another opportunity to put her friendship with one of Team USA’s finest to one side at the 2007 Women’s World Cup Finals in China.
Meantime, juggling married life, running a business and her soccer career should keep Simone Ferrara as active and as full of life as ever - you can guarantee Miss "Perpetual Motion Personified" wouldn’t have it any other way.
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